The present invention relates to a firefighting apparatus, such as a fire truck, a trailer or other vehicles, and more particularly to a firefighting apparatus with an aerial ladder and one or more side access ladders.
There are a variety of fire trucks and rescue vehicles that include aerial ladders to assist in the fighting of fires. These aerial ladders usually are mounted on a frame or chassis of a fire truck. The ladder can be raised from a generally horizontal position to an angled position so that the ladder extends upwardly from the frame. The ladder can be extended and retracted to achieve varying heights for rescue operations and/or for the application of firefighting fluids.
Generally, aerial ladder trucks are used to fight fires from elevated positions or to rescue victims trapped in burning buildings. Many times, an aerial ladder truck is dispatched to an emergency location such as the location of a traffic accident, a boating accident, a plane accident, a man-made or natural disaster and/or a terrorist attack, where the ladder is to be used to rescue one or more individuals. In these circumstances, it can be helpful to quickly access and exit from the aerial ladder, and thus get on or off the ladder platform of the fire truck.
To facilitate this access and exit from the ladder platform, many aerial ladder trucks include access ladders that project from the rear end of the fire truck. These access ladders typically are the only ladders rearward of the cab (other than the aerial ladder), so when one of the access ladders is blocked by the aerial ladder extending in a direction over or near the access ladder, that access ladder is rendered unusable. In turn, the ingress and egress of users to the ladder is impaired, and use is limited to one access ladder. Where time is of the essence in a rescue operation, this access impairment can cause potentially dangerous delays.
Further, with the advent of certain side stack hose beds in some fire trucks, many new trucks come with only one rear access ladder. This can further impair access to the ladder platform and upper deck of the truck. In some cases, where the aerial ladder completely blocks the access ladder, the aerial ladder may need to be moved or rotated to provide access to the aerial ladder via the rear access ladder.
Thus, while aerial ladder trucks are currently available and helpful in a variety of situations, there remains room for improvement in their function, operation and utilization.